Like A Badge
by ProTempore
Summary: She knows his very smell. Not just the gist but the very makeup. VxA. Based on movie. Oneshot.


**Like A Badge (1/1)  
****AN:** I seen the movie and I've read the book and I must say that I was rather disappointed with the movie. This, however, will be based on it. I recommend that you've read the book and have seen the movie before reading this because I fuse them both together. I also take some things from the book (like Vivian's relationship with Rafe and when she speaks about the music of her people in the book). The whole Aiden/Vivian relationship is played out in this (because I can never get enough of Hugh Dancy) and it's based on the line near the end where Gabriel says "I can smell him on you" referring to Aiden.  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own the book or movie Blood & Chocolate. I don't own the characters either.

**(1/1)  
**She knows his very smell. Not just the gist but the very makeup. The coffee in the morning. The hint of oil paints. The charcoal tipped fingertips. Caught red handed. She knows everything down to a tee. The very cipher of his stench. Not that she would exactly call it a stench. No, no, no. More like the whole orbit of his body. She's can see it almost like a spectrum of aura.

It's not that she doesn't like his smell it's just that it's not right on her. She's used to being nothing. She's even refrained from wearing perfume because of this very reason. It's clogs her nose. Technically she doesn't really need a free nose unless she's going to hunt but it's still weird. She's never understood the need to mask human scents...or maybe that's because she's not human. She likes the smell. The smell of fear. Sadness. Happiness. She's never told Aiden but she can smell his excitement...and she likes it that way. What she doesn't like is carrying him with her every where she goes. She's washed and re-washed her clothes. Hung them out to dry time and time again. He barely notices. Smelling him in the sheets is enough. But her clothes? It's abnormal and she always feels as if someone is looking at her. Mocking her because of the human scent she's wearing like a badge. She's in love with him because he doesn't notice. He's completely naive. Gullible, in fact. He can't smell when she's coming on to him. He can't smell that she's sad when she says she's not. He can't smell the way her stomach knots when he kisses her the right way and she likes him for that very reason alone.

With the five it was all complicated. A game. With Rafe it was all matching wits. Who could win the battle. Tongues here. Hands there. A duel. A draw. He would take it if he didn't get it. He's said that before. From anyone. Anywhere. They're simply hardened. Their music is hard. All gyrating hips and rough edges. Slippery slopes. No place to rest. No summit of trust.

He prefers easiness and he'll give up his shoulder for resting. She likes this. He's the only person that's asked her how she feels. She's afraid, however, that he'll start realizing that every time he lies she can smell the truth. Every time he says he doesn't mind when he really does. She's afraid he'll find out and he'll start treating her like the five did. Calculating what to say in answer before a question is even posed.

There flat is small and open. There are barely any doors, save for the bathroom. Windows instead of walls. She sits on the ledge, staring out into the Paris streets when he emerges from the bathroom, his very decency saved by a mere towel. She can feel the steam rising from his body. She winces and she can feel the hairs on her arms stand on edge. _If you only knew..._

"Are you going to get dressed?" he leans into the doorway and crosses his legs, a small strand of water rolling down the creek of his chest.

Her hair is messily undone. "I am dressed," she smiles broadly because it's what she wore to bed. He smirks somewhat, and she smooths down the sundress. And she's smiles merely because she knows he likes her that way and that means something.

"Let me throw on something," he backs away slowly and she wonders if he knows how perfect he is.

When they walk down the street, his arm slung around her shoulder, she keeps her nose close to his neck, her head resting gently on his right shoulder. Just so she'll remember. And when she's not with him she'll still have him. And because of this... she wears this human scent in which she's fallen in love with...like a badge.


End file.
